Chemours: GenX polluting the Cape Fear since 1980

Thursday

Jun 15, 2017 at 2:00 PMJun 16, 2017 at 12:06 AM

Wilmington-area officials demand answers, action during invitation-only meeting with company

By Adam Wagner and Tim Buckland GateHouse Media

WILMINGTON -- A former DuPont plant has been discharging an unregulated toxic chemical into the Cape Fear River since 1980, company officials revealed Thursday at a meeting with local and state officials.

The revelation came during the same meeting where officials from DuPont-spinoff Chemours Co. admitted the GenX found in some North Carolina public water supplies is likely coming from the Fayetteville Works site, about 100 miles up the Cape Fear River from Wilmington.

Chemours wouldn’t commit to immediately stopping the discharge, although company officials did say they are exploring several avenues -- including tweaking the manufacturing process they believe is resulting in the GenX found in the Cape Fear. The company demurred when pressed to stop that process until they are certain the chemical is no longer leaking into the river.

“We are asking this company to cease discharging this toxin into our water until we get more answers,” said Frank Williams, the chairman of Brunswick County Commissioners. “At this point, we don’t have answers.”

Chemours manufactures GenX at Fayetteville Works, but believes that process is not resulting in any discharge -- thereby adhering to the 99 percent capture-limit set out in a 2009 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) consent order allowing the company to sell the chemical.

Instead, Chemours officials said, the GenX found in the river is likely the product of a vinyl ether process that takes elsewhere on the sprawling industrial park site. That process has been in place at Fayetteville Works since 1980, and, the company said, the GenX leaking into the Cape Fear is totally unregulated because it is a byproduct of another process.

"This is the emissions that are in the Cape Fear River, from this unregulated byproduct," said Kathy O'Keefe, Chemours' product sustainability director.

DuPont spun off Chemours in 2015.

During a press conference after the meeting, New Hanover County Commissioners Chairman Woody White said he still didn't have an answer to a basic question: Is the water safe to drink? He said he asked Chemours officials that question earlier this week.

"It took them about a minute and a half to answer it. It should be a yes or no question," White said. That said, "I'm drinking the water. My family is drinking the water. I think it's safe. I made that decision for myself and my family.

"But obviously we all have a lot of unanswered questions."

White said he provided tap water to everyone in the room at the meeting. He said that while he drank it, he didn't see any Chemours officials drink the water.

In her opening remarks during Thursday's meeting, O'Keefe said, "Our belief is that the GenX level in the drinking water coming from the Cape Fear River is safe and it does not pose any harm to human health."

Lack of answers

Last week, the StarNews reported teams of researchers had found the new chemical compound called GenX in the Cape Fear River on at least three occasions beginning in 2012. During testing in 2013-14, the sampling revealed water in the Cape Fear Public Utility Authority's (CFPUA) intake, with the measurements averaging 631 parts per trillion. The utility is unable to filter the compound out of the water before it is sent to distribution lines.

Chemours officials said they installed technology in November 2013 to cut down on the amount of GenX reaching the Cape Fear. Company models indicate the amount of GenX should have dropped from about 631 parts per trillion to about 100, Mike Johnson, the Fayetteville Works' environmental manager, said Thursday.

"I'm pretty confident that we've eliminated 80 percent of what was going in the river from 2013 to today," he said, later adding, "The final 20 percent, we're currently looking at some possible changes in the process or changes in the operation to see if we can reduce that further."

GenX belongs to a family of man-made chemicals known as fluorochemicals, a group that also includes C8, the chemical it replaced. DuPont and Chemours ceased production of C8 -- also known as PFOA -- in the face of steadily mounting legal challenges and a body of research indicating dangerous health effects.

Complicating matters for regulators and local officials is GenX’s status as an emergent chemical -- it was first produced commercially in 2009. That means there is not a large body of research showing its effects and state regulators don’t have federal standards they can enforce.

After the meeting, Gary Cambre, senior communications manager for Chemours, said in a statement: "Extensive health and safety testing was conducted on the polymerization processing aid, and the data has been shared with regulatory agencies around the world and published in peer-reviewed scientific publications."

Frustration and anger

Wilmington-area officials reacted angrily to the revelation that the potentially hazardous chemical has been flowing into the Cape Fear for more than 35 years.

Several officials called on Chemours to cease GenX operations until it can ensure the chemical doesn't enter the river.

"We're asking for a 100-percent elimination of GenX from the Cape Fear River," Wilmington Mayor Bill Saffo said. While he said company officials indicated they would work toward that goal, "in the meantime, I want to ask the state DEQ and the EPA to suspend that operation until we have some evidence."

As a reporter asked when CFPUA knew about the presence of GenX in the water and why it didn't inform the public, CFPUA Executive Director Jim Flechtner -- who was standing in the rear of the conference room -- left the room.

About two hours later, CFPUA board chairman Michael Brown said in a statement that he will call for board member Jennifer Adams, who is a chemical engineer, to "conduct a review regarding CFPUA's involvement in and communication about the North Carolina State University's study."

In his statement, Brown said CFPUA employees first learned of the study in May 2016 and brought it Flechtner's attention in March of 2017. The board was notified via email on June 5. Flechtner had said in an interview with WWAY NEWS that CFPUA learned about the study in November 2016.

White said he was dissatisfied that CFPUA officials -- while participating in the study -- never told the CFPUA board or the public about the presence of GenX in the water, saying he learned about the issue "in an article in the StarNews" last week "that cause immediate alarm, concern and fear in our community as to the quality and safety of our drinking water, something fundamental to our civilization."

"I am not satisfied with the timing of releasing it to our board, our staff and to the health department," White said. "I know that it may not have been an intentional act on their part ... I would encourage them respectfully in the future that they be much more forthcoming."

White also criticized CFPUA's decision earlier this week to raise water rates in the midst of the GenX issue.

The reports of GenX in the water also prompted the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality to launch a formal investigation into the matter -- including Chemours-funded testing of the water that is set to take place during the next three weeks, while the vinyl ether process that is believed to be resulting in GenX discharge is ongoing.

Michael Regan, N.C. DEQ secretary, who attended Thursday's meeting, said it is "too early to tell" if the company could potentially face punitive action.

"What we have here," he said, "is a situation where the company is not breaking the law."

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